Weekly News Roundup: Dispatches from the Silk Road Economic Belt

Here's how China is buying its way into Europe
For more than a decade, Chinese political and corporate leaders have been scouring the globe with seemingly bottomless wallets in hand. From Asia to Africa, the U.S. and Latin America, the results are hard to ignore as China has asserted itself as an emerging world power. Less well known is China’s diffuse but expanding footprint in Europe.Bloomberg has crunched the numbers to compile the most comprehensive audit to date of China’s presence in Europe. It shows that China has bought
or invested in assets amounting to at least $318 billion over the past 10 years. (Bloomberg)

Roundup: Austria says new cargo train from China marks opportunity for more cooperation
The arrival of the first China-Europe freight train to Austria on Friday was "a symbol of the cooperation between China and Austria", Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen told Xinhua.The train -- carrying 41 containers of goods valued at 1.5 million U.S. dollars, including LED displays, tires and lamps -- departed from Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province on April 12. China-Europe freight trains have made 1,000 trips in the first three months, up 75 percent compared with the same period last year, according to China Railway Corporation. The cross-border rail network links 43 Chinese cities with 41 European cities in 13 countries. Chengdu has 16 routes to cities including Nuremberg, Milan and Prague.(Xinhua)

Belt and Road Initiative facilitates China-CEE cooperation: PwC

The Belt and Road Initiative will facilitate win-win cooperation between China and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries, according to global accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Chinese businesses used to be more inclined to invest in resource-rich countries such as Russia and Kazakhstan, Piotr Romanowski, PwC partner on advisory business in CEE countries, told Xinhua. "The Belt and Road Initiative has led to a massive change. Foreign direct investment (FDI) from China in Poland and the Czech Republic in 2016 was higher than the previous 15 years combined," Romanowski said. Xinhua

Croatia signs contested bridge deal with Chinese group
Croatia has signed a contested 2.08 billion kuna ($343 million) contract with a Chinese consortium to build a bridge linking the southern Peljesac peninsula with the rest of the country.At present the only road connection between mainlandCroatia and its far south - including the popular southern Adriatic
tourist destination of Dubrovnik - passes through neighboring Bosnia. (Reuters)

India and China jostle for influence in Iran and Central Asia
China and India's new Great Game has reached the playing field of the original imperial power rivalry in the 19th century: Iran and Central Asia.Each of the rising giants wants to be the one to shape a new regional order. Their competition for influence continues to unfold in Indian Ocean countries like the Maldives and Sri Lanka. But they are also pressing farther west, up into the Arabian Sea, Iran and the Central Asian states. (Nikkei)

China fails to get Indian support for Belt and Road ahead of summit

China failed to get India’s support for its ambitious Belt and Road infrastructure project at the end of a foreign ministers’ meeting of a major security bloc on 24 April, ahead of an ice-breaking trip to China this week by India’s prime minister. The Belt and Road is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s landmark scheme to build infrastructure to connect China to the rest of Asia and beyond, a giant reworking of its old Silk Road. (Reuters)

Chinese state councilor calls for improved SCO cooperation in defense, security

Chinese State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Wei Fenghe on Tuesday called on defense ministers from Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member countries to implement consensus reached by heads of state and continuously improve cooperation in defense and security. (Xinhua)

China and Georgia Deepen Transit Cooperation
On April 12, Georgia’s Economy Minister Dimitry Kumsishvili, along with three other high-level Georgian officials, participated in a joint People’s Bank of China–International Monetary Fund conference on China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), in Beijing. During the conference, Kumsishvili and Chinese Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng talked about the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor (TITR), after which Kumsishvili announced that China had agreed to help Georgia develop its portion of the TITR—considered the BRI’s “middle corridor” (Vestnik Kavkaza, April 13). The development was the result of intensive Georgian-Chinese trade negotiations, which began in earnest slightly more than two years ago (see EDM, September 21, 2016).

Why Didn't Turkmen, Uzbek Leaders Mention 'Line D' To China?
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov just concluded a highly touted state visit to Uzbekistan, and energy was -- as always -- one of the main topics of discussion.Berdymukhammedov and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev discussed Uzbekistan’s participation in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline and joint work at the offshore hydrocarbon fields in
Turkmenistan’s sector of the Caspian Sea. (Rferl)

The Full Story Behind China's Gold Mine-Power Plant Swap in Tajikistan
In the last couple of days, it was reported that a Chinese company, TBEA, has been granted a license to operate the Upper Kumarg gold mine in northern Tajikistan in exchange for the construction of a power plant in Dushanbe. This is likely to be true. It is the culmination of a long-standing agreement that began almost a decade ago. (thediplomat)


CENTRAL ASIA

US-Kazakh Accord to Use Caspian Ports as Afghan Support Hubs Irks Moscow
Since 1991, two key questions have dominated discussions of the fate of the Caspian Sea: First, how will it be divided now that there are five littoral states rather than two, as was the case in Soviet times? And second, will this landlocked body of water be an east-west transit bridge between China and Central Asia in the east and Europe in the West, or a north-south route for the projection of Russian power toward Iran and the Middle East? Both of those issues are now heating up as a result of three important moves on this complex chessboard that, as of yet, are still incalculable in their consequences.

In Uzbekistan, Attempts at Liberalization Aren’t What They Seem
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, which governed Uzbekistan as a satellite state, the country had had only one ruler: Islam Karimov, a strong-armed, unapologetically clannish dictator. He died in 2016 and was replaced by Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Shortly thereafter, Mirziyoyev announced reforms meant to open the country up to the outside world economically. He cultivated ties with potential patrons, including Russia, Europe, and China. More important, he began to improve relations with other Central Asian states. Cross-border disputes related to access and usage of energy and water resources are gradually being solved. (geopoliticalfutures)

Good News For Uzbekistan Is Not Good News For Turkmenistan
As if Turkmenistan didn't already have an image problem, it must now contend with neighboring Uzbekistan changing its policies and earning cautious but consistent praise from the global community and renewed interest from international companies and investors.More concerning for Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov is how Uzbekistan is achieving such a turnaround. (rferl)

Tackling the Roots of Uzbek Terror
Uzbek nationals have carried out five major terrorist attacks across Europe and the United States since 2016, the most devastating of which occurred at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport, in June 2016, and the city’s Raina Nightclub on New Year’s Eve 2017. The attacks, respectively, left 41 and 39 people dead. Further attacks in the Swedish capital of Stockholm, St Petersburg, Russia and New York killed a total of 28 people. (Jamestown Foundation)

Russia deploys teachers to Tajikistan on goodwill mission
Emil Burkhanov’s pupils call him ustod, the Tajik word for teacher, a small concession in a class conducted rigorously in Russian.The 37-year-old was one of 28 teachers dispatched to Tajikistan by the Russian government at the start of this academic year, part of a pilot project to assist a struggling, cash-strapped education system. It is the first initiative of its kind in Tajikistan since the fall of the Soviet Union. (eurasianet)

What To Wear: A Style Guideline For Tajik Women
What's a Tajik woman to do? She wants to step out, but is unsure if her dress is too long -- or too short. She wants to wear a head scarf, but what type? And it's raining. Does she dare wear galoshes?
She no longer has to make such choices on her own, as Tajikistan's government is now providing a lengthy guide on how female citizens should dress, no matter their age, and whatever the season or occasion.The 367-page hardback -- titled The Guidebook To Recommended Outfits In Tajikistan -- outlines acceptable garment colors, shapes, lengths, and materials. (.rferl)